2022 Victorian Community History Awards Shortlist

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR PREMIER’S HISTORY AWARD

The preservation and sharing of Victoria’s past is being celebrated with the Victorian Community History Awards shortlist showcasing everything from new history books to community walking tours.

Some 21 publications and nine projects have been shortlisted for 10 prizes ranging from $500 to $2,000. All are also in the running for the $5,000 Victorian Premier’s History Award to be announced at the Melbourne Arts Centre on 21 October.

The shortlist includes online and physical exhibitions, podcasts, websites, walks and tours, books and articles. These span a range of topics from “Bain Attwood’s book William Cooper: An Aboriginal Life Story which documents the life of the prominent Aboriginal activist”, to “Queer-ways: Retracing Melbourne’s Queer Footprint a walking tour profiling important historical sites and stories linked to Melbourne’s queer community in the City of Yarra”. In the virtual realm, the innovative Prima Donna podcast profiles Australian artists in both words and sounds. The series combines oral history with sonic artworks, through interviews with Australian artists collaged with original compositions by composer Nat Grant.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Government Services Danny Pearson

Without knowing our past we can’t know where we are going, so it’s fantastic we can recognise these projects and publications that bring Victoria’s colourful history to life.

The projects have something for everyone, from exciting new books to walking tours uncovering the stories hidden on our city streets.

To read the full shortlist announcement from the Minister’s office click here.

Final award winners will be announced online in October as part of History Month. 

 Those books highlighted in blue below are hyper-linked to the History Victoria bookshop if you wish to purchase a copy.

Those highlighted in green are online based entries, and are linked to the entry itself. These range from websites to podcasts to eBooks.

 

Click here to see the winners!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022 Victorian Community History Awards Shortlist

 

 

‘Aboriginal fire-management practices in colonial Victoria’
Fred Cahir, Ian D. Clark, Dan Tout, Benjamin Wilkie and Jidah Clark.
Aboriginal History, Vol. 45, 2021, pp. 109-130.

 

About Corayo: A Thematic History of Greater Geelong
David Rowe

 

Across Bass Strait: Intercolonial Trade in Meat and Livestock
Jane L Lennon

 

The Architecture of Devotion: James Goold and His Legacies in Colonial Melbourne
Jaynie Anderson, Max Vodola and Shane Carmody (eds)

 

The Benalla Experiment
Lyn Gallacher and Richard Girvan
Sabine Smyth, curator of associated website, Benalla Migrant Camp 1949-1967 – Online Archive

 

Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism
Marion Maddox (ed)

 

City of Melton 150th Anniversary Online Exhibition
City of Melton and Way Back When Consulting Historians

 

Early Days: Greensborough and St Helena, Volume 1, Greensborough 1837‒1860 and St Helena 1840‒1900
Greensborough Historical Society

 

Extinct: Artistic impressions of our lost wildlife
Benjamin Gray

 

Flemington Kensington (Flem-Ken) Community Legal Centre Storytelling Project
History at Work and Malcolm McKinnon

 

Heritage Making and Migrant Subjects in the Deindustrialising Region of the Latrobe Valley
Alexandra Dellios

 

‘His Walking Feet’ in Meanjin 
Jill Giese

 

A History of Trans Health Care
AusPATH and Noah Riseman

 

‘Loyally Made for Loyal Australians’: Industrial Heritage, Modernity and Nationalism 127 at Australian Knitting Mills, Richmond, 1910-55,
Chris McConville
Victorian Historical Journal, June 2022, pp. 127-152.

 

The Miles Lewis Heritage Building Materials Collection
Architecture, Building and Planning Library, University of Melbourne and Restore Conservation Services, with 3D scanning by SI Projects, and The Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban, and Cultural Heritage

 

 

 

Policing gender nonconformity in Victoria, 1900‒1940’,
Adrien McCrory
Provenance: The Journal of the Public Record Office Victoria, issue no. 19, 2021, pp. 33‒42.

 

Prima Donna Podcast
Nat Grant

 

Queerways
Luciano and Georgia Keats (supported by the Australian Queer Archives).

 

Red Cliffs Recollections: A century of soldier settlement 1921‒2021
Red Cliffs Historical Society (Helen Petschel, Christine Cook and Matthew Cook)

 

‘Report to the City of Moreland on the Place Name “Moreland”’
James Lesh

 

Revealing Stories: The Hidden History of the Performing Arts Scene in Brunswick and Coburg
Janine Barrand and Dianna Wells

 

A Sort of History of Me, My Family and a Cow Named Gina
Sebastian J. ‘Sam’ Gatto

 

Still On Track: 100 Years of the Melbourne Women’s Walking Club
Melbourne Women’s Walking Club INC

 

The Toolangi and Castella History Project 
The Toolangi‒Castella Local History Group.

 

Truth, Beauty and Utility: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Heidelberg
Heidelberg Historical Society

 

Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues: 30 Years
Adrian Jackson and Andra Jackson 

 

William Cooper: An Aboriginal Life Story
Bain Attwood

 

Women’s History Month: A Series of Interviews
Alexandra Pierce

 

The Women of Little Lon
Barbara Minchinton

 

Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria
Janet McCalman

The Victorian Community History Awards are proudly presented by Public Record Office Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

The Awards recognises excellence and originality in historical storytelling. The range of award categories reflects the variety of formats that can be used to enrich the lives of Victorians through history.

The  2022 Victorian Premier’s History Award recipient and ten Victorian Community History category winners will be chosen, and announced during History Month, October 2022.

Need more information?

Call us on 03 9326 9288

Email us at vcha@historyvictoria.org.au | historyvictoria.org.au | prov.vic.gov.au

Image caption: The USA’s Willye Brown White (548) celebrates after receiving silver in Women’s long jump, Melbourne Olympics, 1956.

Public Record Office Victoria. VPRS 10742/P0, Item A702

VCHA sponsors, RHSV, PROV and State Government Victoria